Joey Cardaccio, service manager at Slackwater Sandy, joins Utah Beer News for another episode of our 3 Beers with Joey video series.

Each month, Cardaccio will chat with us about three new or noteworthy beers worth checking out. Here are the three beers selected for August 2021:

• Mother Puckin’ Mango Sour Ale (UTOG Brewing)
• Rational Gaze Hazy Double IPA (Falling Knife Brewing Company in collaboration with Ology Brewing)
• Fruit Creep Hazy Double IPA (Illuminated Brew Works)

About the Utah Beer News Virtual Taproom

Utah Beer News conducts 15-minute video interviews with brewers, breweries, and everyday imbibers. These brief conversations are recorded virtually. They are uploaded the same day (or the next day) to the Utah Beer News YouTube channel.

Instead of the more in-depth interviews and brewery histories typical of the Utah Beer News Podcast episodes and Brewery Profile articles, these bite-sized conversations feature so-called “newsy” information. We talk about new beer releases, upcoming events, and general happenings in and around Utah’s craft breweries.

If you’re a brewer or brewery representative — or even an everyday imbiber with a story to share — and would like to participate in an upcoming episode, please fill out the contact form.

Slackwater Sandy Transcript (August 2021)

The following is a slightly edited transcript of our conversation. And here’s a previous article we wrote about Slackwater Sandy.

[Tim Haran]

Hi again, everyone. Thank you for joining Utah Beer News for the latest in our one-on-one conversations with local Hey there, everyone. Thanks for joining Utah Beer News for the latest in our one-on-one conversations with local brewers, breweries, and everyday imbibers. I’m Tim Haran, the founder of Utah Beer News. And we’re back for our once-a-month check-in with Joey Cardaccio, service manager at Slackwater Pub & Pizzeria in Sandy. Welcome, Joey.

[Joey Cardaccio]

Hey, how are you doing, Tim?

[Tim Haran]

I’m doing alright. Thanks for taking the time. Are you surviving the smoke? The smoky air?

[Joey Cardaccio]

Barely. I’ve been spending a lot of time inside, honestly.

[Tim Haran]

Man, it’s just been crazy. Yeah, hopefully it will clear out soon.

[Joey Cardaccio]

Yeah, for real.

[Tim Haran]

Cool. As is routine here on 3 Beers with Joey, Joey’s selected new or noteworthy beers that are available now at Slackwater. And last month’s were extremely popular. So you’ve got some good ones this one time around. Let’s dive right in. Let’s go with No. 1. What do you have for us?

[Joey Cardaccio]

Cool. So the first one I’ve got is local in Ogden. UTOG Brewing. I have their new sour called Mother Puckin’ Mango. So this is their sour ale, 6.5%. It’s a little higher ABV. This one’s made with Summit hops. It’s really fruity, really tart. It’s got some floral notes to it. Not too sweet but it has a slight sweetness to it, but not too much. Just a perfect summer mango patio crusher.

But again, 6.5%, so it’s got a little bit of a punch to it. It’s a lot of mango. I also got a little bit of pineapple from it, too, but it’s a decent amount of mango to it. I really like it. And we’ve just been selling a ton of it here in the last couple of weeks.

[Tim Haran]

Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, I like what UTOG’s doing. Especially with some of their fruit beers. Whether they use puree or whatever, I think it’s really nice for them.

Cool. I haven’t had that one yet. I’ll have to check that one out.

How about the second one?

[Joey Cardaccio]

Yeah, so the second one I have is from Falling Knife Brewing. They’re in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is called Rational Gaze. This is a collab with Ology Brewing, who’s in Tallahassee, Florida. So this is a brand new brewery to the state of Utah. Not a brand new brewery, but to Utah.

So they just came in maybe about a week or two ago. We got a couple of their brews. This is a double-dry hopped double hazy IPA. It’s made with Citra, Strata, and Michigan Copper hops. It’s really fruity, really, really fruity. Pretty hazy. Really, really smooth because it’s 8.9%, but it’s really smooth. It drinks like it’s 6.5% so it’s another dangerous one. Really, really nice. We’re getting a lot of good feedback on this beer. This is the first beer I’ve had from either of these breweries and it’s really, really nice.

We have another one called Verbal Tip. That’s another hazy IPA. I think you tried it when you were here about a week ago?

[Tim Haran]

Yeah, in fact, last time I was in I had both of those. So that first one you were talking about was delicious and also the Verbal Tip was good, too. I’ve never had any of those beers from that brewery before, so that was cool.

[Joey Cardaccio]

And the labels are stickers, so you peel them off and this whole part here is just a big sticker, which I think is pretty cool.

[Tim Haran]

That is cool. Nice. Cool. What are we going to wrap up with today?

[Joey Cardaccio]

So we’re going to wrap up with one of my favorite beers from Illuminated Brew Works out of Chicago. So this is a 7.5% double dry-hopped double IPA. Fruit Creep. This beer has been in Utah before. It’s part of their rotating series that goes through the liquor stores. This one is available at the DABC. It was Brony and now it’s Fruit Creep.

It’s a double dry-hopped double hazy. That’s the rotating series that they do here in Utah. Again, extremely juicy. A lot of tropical fruits in this one. Motueka, Citra, Mandarina Bavarian hops are made with this one. Really, really, really good.

This is probably top, top 3 favorite hazy IPAs that we can get here in Utah for me. That aren’t local.

[Tim Haran]

They do such a good job with their labels too. I recognize that because the first time I had a beer from that brewery was up at your place in Ogden. Yeah.

[Joey Cardaccio]

They make a lot of good stuff. A lot of good stuff coming out of Illuminated Brew Works. I’m hoping we can get a lot of cool stuff from them in the future.

[Tim Haran]

Yeah. Nice. Alright, we’re in the middle of summer right now. August. What do you have going on at Slackwater this month?

[Joey Cardaccio]

So this week, actually, on the 11th, Wednesday, we have Red Rock coming in for a tap takeover. They’re going to bring in some one-offs and some cool stuff. We’re going to feature four of their beers for four bucks a pint. That’s looking like it’s going to be a good time.

And then going back to UTOG, they’re coming in on the 25th, which is also Wednesday night. They’re going to bring in four beers as well. Hopefully, I can get Carson up there to bring me some cool stuff. And those tap takeovers start at 5 o’clock and they go until close at 10 o’clock.

[Tim Haran]

Sweet. I like how you’re pretty much hitting all the breweries in the state to come out — and even breweries out of state who are coming out for tap takeovers. That’s awesome. Sweet. Very cool.

Then obviously later this month we’ve got the Utah Beer Festival coming up. Are you going to be able to make it out to that?

[Joey Cardaccio]

I should be able to go to one of the days. Yeah, I have one of the days off so I think I’m going to bring the little one down there and hang out. Nice. Try some beers. I’m looking forward to that actually.

I haven’t been. Obviously, I haven’t been, they didn’t have it last year, but I don’t remember, I think the last time I was there was probably three years ago.

[Tim Haran]

Yeah, yeah, and this is going to be a new location, too. It’s at the Gateway this year. They’re thinking, you know, about 50 breweries. This is the 11th annual one. They’re thinking 10,000 people might be there over the course of two days. So it’s going to be a big one. It’s always a good time, so looking forward to that.

And then, before I let you go, I wanted to touch on some big news you guys have coming up at Slackwater? What’s going on with the new location?  

[Joey Cardaccio]

So we are opening a new Slackwater in downtown Salt Lake at 537 West and 600 South. In this building called Industry. So right in the Granary District, right in the heart of all the newer breweries and an up-and-coming neighborhood.

I don’t have an exact date of opening yet, but keep an eye out on our social media and we’ll post as soon as we know when we’re going to be opening up.

Everything’s moving right along and it’s going to be, it’s going to be, it’s going to be big. It’s going to be awesome. It’ll be awesome.